Increase in initial asylum applications in September

Berlin. In Germany, more people applied for asylum for the first time in September than in the previous month. However, this does not change the long-term decline in the number of asylum seekers. As a spokeswoman for the Federal Ministry of the Interior announced upon request, the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (Bamf) accepted 5,276 initial asylum applications last month. That is 40 percent less than in September last year and 70 percent less than in September 2024.

“The significant decline in the number of asylum seekers shows that our measures at national and European levels are working,” said Federal Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt (CSU). The European Union is continuing its course “to turn the asylum system around”. This includes a crisis reaction mechanism that protects the EU's external borders from "controlled mass incursions", with a "rapid reaction force" from the EU border protection agency Frontex and fast-track procedures at the borders.

After around 5,550 initial asylum applications in May, the number of new asylum applications fell even further; in July and August there were fewer than 4,000 applications in each case. The fact that in recent months a number of people who have been living in Germany for a long time have submitted a follow-up application to the Bamf is due to a ruling by the European Court of Justice.